That was the first time I came across the word, gay. Obviously, time has elapsed and things have changed and I will really not want to refer to myself as gay except I truly am and even if I am truly gay now, I will still not say it loud being a Nigerian residing in Nigeria.

I think I may have confused you a bit but that’s what happens when we use the word “Aladdin” to describe both positive and negative, right?

If you haven’t gotten the gist here, then let me just come as classical as I can be.

There was a time when the word “gay” meant being happy or excited or brightly coloured and it was a verb. Its noun form was gaiety. You can check a 1998 dictionary for confirmation. In the 2005 edition of the same dictionary, this meaning of gay will probably be listed as old-fashioned. A man named Arrimeh Debwan-yir, whom I met on facebook some days ago recounted his experience publishing a poem in which he used the word gay severally and just like you probably did earlier, someone mistook his poem for something else and he received an insult for apparently what turned out to be beautiful poetry.

Then I pondered, words do come and go but what’s with this “new gay” issue that gets everybody so riled up at the slightest mention of it.

Well, there’s a certain level of agitation and imagination that forms in a man’s mind when he is doing something wrong. It’s what puts him instantly on a defensive stance when he is accosted or he feels he will be accosted. For instance, the United States has ruled that homosexuality is a natural inclination and it should be allowed in the American society and churches and nobody disputes their national laws with them but why does the United States feel threatened to the extent of threatening nations with an international sanction whenever an African nation claims it’s alien to their own belief in the same God and they will not condone such union in their churches. I guess it’s an innate feeling on the part of the US that very soon, a lot of people will realise that, Jesus Christ wasn’t born of a homosexual union and neither was any of the prophets and fore-runners of any world religion born through such and then the world will see the US as a desperate nation who will promote the “wrongest” evil in its course of delivering “freedom” to all.

It’s the same with humans, a man is poor and that’s is excuse for becoming a thief, he sees another poor man who takes his poverty as a reason to be pious and he suddenly starts feeling threatened by the man’s piety.

I therefore tell myself that being gay is different from being a homosexual but will other people know this fact, I guess not.

Is it right to be a homosexual then, well, I think not.

Who then was gay first? Sunday’s child may be. Adam wasn’t even born on the Sabbath, right?

Who then was the first homosexual? I really don’t know his name but I know that all the major religions of the world claim he was destroyed for being a homosexual.

That’s all I know about the first gay and the first homosexual.

PS: My first novel will be published on 14th March, 2014 and I will appreciate it greatly if you’ll be one of my first readers. I promise it’ll be sold at a relatively low cost and I’ll put up the links as soon as it’s available for sale.

Partly copied from ‘Sensing taste of fruits and vegetables using near infrared (NIR) Technology’. M.Sc. Thesis by Nawaf Abu-Khalaf

Bite That Fruityy

Tito is a lover of fruits. I really do love my fruits. Back in the university, I recall my closest friend TKB Charles often called me a monkey because of how much I ate bananas, while serving in the youth corps, another friend exclaimed on the number of garden eggs I eat, now my closest pal and colleague as a graduate student calls me ‘the cucumber monger’. You need to see me in my elements. Fruits are good but many times you buy something that looks good but eventually find it’s no good. Your plight may be over.

At present time, the consumption, marketing and grading of fruits are based on their external aspects. Fruits are stored and marketed visually, manually or automaticallyon the basis of size, color and surface defects. However, internal attributes like dry matter content, total soluble solids contents (refractive index), juice acidity, firmness, etc., are important. Most instrumental techniques to measure these properties are destructive, and involve a considerable amount of manual work.

In recent years, research has been focused on the development of non-destructive measurement techniques for quality attributes of fruits (mainly: apples) and vegetables such as pH, sugar content and firmness. NIR spectroscopy is one of such techniques. The advantages and major disadvantages of this technique are:

􀂉 Advantages:

􀂃 Its fast execution;

􀂃 More than one parameter may be estimated at the same time (by using

multivariate data analysis technique);

􀂃 Simplified sample preparation;

􀂃 Ease of implementation in process control and grading system; and

􀂃 Lack of chemical pollution.

􀂉 Major disadvantages:

􀂃 NIR spectrum is not easy to interpret, since most models are black box

models;

􀂃 The equipment is expensive; and

􀂃 New calibration curve is needed for each variety to obtain good results.

Despite these disadvantages, NIR spectroscopy is the most appropriate technique in terms of speed of assessment and cost at the present time.

In Japan, there are a number of NIR systems in commercial operation for the on-line grading of fruit according to sweetness. There were many contributions using NIR spectroscopy in the field of non-destructive quality assessing like pH, sugar content, firmness, texture parameters, optimal picking date, light penetration of NIR in fruit and bruises.

Taste is also an important internal quality parameter of agricultural commodities, an issue not often discussed in literature. Fruit’s taste is the major asset of fruit quality. The feasibility of using NIR spectroscopy for detecting taste of fruits, based on known NIR ability to predict SSC, acidity and chemicals components.

A non-destructive NIR technique (reflectance mode) for sensing taste of fruits and vegetables may be greatly appreciated among package storage houses, and great store markets for grading fruits according to their taste quality. Since, in practice, apples (for example) are sold in batch and the internal quality of the whole batch is estimated by the average of the lab values of sample sub set. With this method (NIR technology), all apples could be controlled and the consumers will know the taste of what they’re buying.

Whenever the issue of alternative sources of power is discussed, one notices a glaring tendency. In such discussions, renewable sources of energy like solar, biomass, and wind are enumerated as worthy of concerted trial by the government and the people of Nigeria. Sadly, no one seems to remember energy efficiency and conservation as a veritable sucker punch that could knock out the power monster our nation is currently facing. Perhaps, it is the offshoot of the systemic dysfunction; of course, with energy efficiency project, there would be no major contract to be awarded and no foreign loan to be negotiated. But the reality is that among the renewable energy sources our government may grudgingly deploy, energy efficiency has the better and faster promise.
Energy efficiency means doing more with less; so we maintain – or exceed – performance while saving both energy and money. An efficient air conditioning system will keep you cool with less electricity and a car with better fuel economy will require fewer fill-ups while still getting you where you need to go. Energy efficiency can help meet the country’s growing demand for energy just as well as oil, gas, coal, solar, wind and hydro. It is the fastest, cleanest and most economical energy resource we have.
How does energy efficiency work? Take that 100watts light bulb as our example. What we want from the light bulb is the light, but in the process of lighting the bulb with electricity, heat is also generated. This is typical of the incandescent tungsten bulb which burns the filament to give off illumination. So, unless we are counting on the bulb for warming us up, the energy is wasted. Energy efficient light bulbs, on the other hand, provide us with the same light, but with less loss of energy to heat. Therefore, the heart of energy efficiency is simple: we get the same results but with less energy wasted. So, if the extra energy saved is cumulatively pushed over for another use, it has then saved the cost for the generation of the energy needed.
Let us look at a graphic example. If the residents of Lagos State for instance, save 10MW of electricity through energy efficiency in their household appliances, it can be assumed that there is extra 10MW of electricity available, which can be given to, say Ogun State, to add to its power grid. In this instance, Ogun State does not need any power plant to generate 10MW anymore; they just pick up the power handed down from Lagos. And how does this help the environment? Simple, every power plant by virtue of the use of fossil fuel to run emits green house gas into the atmosphere, thereby adding to global warming. If then, no power station is constructed to produce the already existing 10MW from Lagos State, it means that carbon has been saved from polluting the atmosphere. What is more? Nigeria has thereby saved the money that would have been used for constructing the 10MW power plant.
An indigenous private firm has scientifically demonstrated the applicability of this module in our very shores. Between March 1 and May 2, 2012, All Sorts Shop Warehouse Limited, in conjunction with the Power Holding Company of Nigeria and Little Bridge Consultants, carried out a study in Oduduwa community, in Kosofe Local Government Area of Lagos State. The study indicated that the distribution of 500 TCP compact fluorescent lamps reduced the load on the community’s overloaded 300 KVA transformer from 151 per cent to 131 per cent (a reduction by 20 per cent, which instantly stopped the constant tripping of the transformer). In addition, the study revealed that 86.6 per cent power was conserved by exchanging 60W bulbs with 11Watts TCP cfls; the sum of N6,733,120 would be saved by the 714 families in Oduduwa community over a period of 10 years; and about 508.8 IB of carbon dioxide was prevented from entering the atmosphere.
In view of the result of the Oduduwa experiment, the stakeholders then designed a project tagged “Go Green Nigeria Light Up Nigeria”, aimed at injecting 100 million TCP cfls into the Nigerian energy consumer population within a space of four years. The extrapolated calculation is that at the end of the campaign, 7,013 MW of power would be saved; N1.35tn saved over 10 years; and 101,760,000 IB of carbon dioxide avoided (which is equivalent to taking 430,000 cars off the roads and planting 17,354,000 trees).
Energy efficiency or the “Green Initiative” is a huge opportunity to be used in creating jobs in Nigeria. There are many Nigerian professionals, at home and abroad, who can implement these ideas. The government must not concentrate only on power generation. The way it works is that Energy Efficiency campaigns should be aimed at changing habitual energy behaviour and investment behaviour of individuals and organisations: from construction to illumination. Barriers to energy efficiency need to be analysed to formulate effective campaigns addressing usage behaviours and utilising policy frameworks to promote private/commercial efficiencies. In the United Kingdom, United States, South Africa, Germany, Middle East, Ghana, etc, thousands of jobs have been created through the Green Initiative.
The United Nations Development Programme is currently engaged in energy efficiency project in Nigeria, but in my opinion, it is too “high up there”, and has not been internalised by the masses who are actually the primary target of such a programme. For an energy efficiency campaign to succeed, it must become a household name, just like other public awareness campaigns like voter registration, etc. This is because according to the UNDP, “the overall objective of the project is to improve the energy efficiency of series of end-use appliances used in residential and public sectors in Nigeria through the introduction of standards and labels and demand-side management programmes.” The UNDP is at this phase of the project focusing on home appliances – bulb, fridge and air conditioning system.
I do not think that too much “grammar” is required in energy efficiency campaigns. Nigeria is a consuming country; and if the government could be able to steer demand to a particular direction through incentives, there is sure to be an immediate result. To its credit, the UNDP has helped the country to prepare the Draft National Energy Efficiency Policy; and has just established bulb testing facilities in the country to be used in ascertaining the quality of imported CFLs into Nigeria. But with the consumer awareness atmosphere here, if concerted efforts are not made to carry the populace along in these laudable milestones, callous businessmen will find a way to wriggle around the law and continue throwing spanner into the works of government’s energy efficient policies.
In the United Kingdom, in order for the government to encourage the citizens to change from incandescent lamps to energy efficient CFLs, it told the people to return their incandescent lamps in exchange for free CFLs. In nearby Ghana, the major strategy the government used to solve the country’s power challenge was by injecting six million CFLs to replace six million incandescent lamps. This way, it avoided the construction of new power plants of 200-240 MW capacity and so save US$3.3m monthly and US$39.5m annually. However, the technology factor is that the United Kingdom has the machine to recycle the returned bulbs and other end-of-life CFLs, while we do not have.
Well, the good news is that the technology lacuna could be filled by the same “Go Green Nigeria Light Up Nigeria” campaign, which just received a CFL recycling plant (the first of its kind in Nigeria) from TCP to enhance the energy efficient bulb project. It is now obvious that this is the kind of private initiative the Federal Government should support because Nigeria is a signatory to the Minamata Convention which seeks to stop the use of mercury by 2020; and therefore needs a robust mercury-mopping process which the recycling plant represents. The CFLs contain some quantity of mercury. Therefore, at the end of the day, not only will the GGNLN safeguard our environment, it will create employment in addition to providing a platform for technology transfer.

I have been asking myself, does Africa need help? Every year aids, loans and subventions are received by African governments from the USA, World Bank and Europe but we receive news of corruption and massive money laundering schemes by African leaders. So I decided to engage the readers of my blog in this question. In 2004, Human
Rights Watch exposed the
government of Equitorial Guinea’s lavish spending
habits. Here is a country of just about 500000 people and is the 4th largest producer of Oil in Africa. The country has a high per capita income but its citizens live on so little because the country’s wealth is embezzled by its 35 year ruler and his son, the vice president. The US benefits from this country massively because the US is the largest importer of crude from Equitorial Guinea but the US has never deemed it fit to point out the crimes committed by the country’s leadership. Rather, the western governments allow these corrupt officials to use their banks for laundering huge amounts and then they give back a percentage as loans and aids. I think non-African citizens should speak against the use of their paid taxes to swell the coffers of African presidents. Why do you think African presidents want to remain in power for extended periods of time? The monetary gain.
Nigeria, for instance has the highest paid MPs in the world yet about 70 percent of its population has no access to electricity for almost 10 hours of every day. A typical Nigerian senator is paid almost twice as much as the US president yet unemployment rate among youths is as high as 60 percent. The Central Bank of Nigeria alleges that about 25 percent of the countries income caters for the MPs alone and that includes all the loans and aids constantly given to this country. The health sector is so backward that Nigeria accounts for over 90 percent of polio cases in the world. Money embezzled in Nigeria between2012 to 2013 alone amounts to almost 2trillion dollars. The country is the largest oil producer in Africa. Yet, the tax payers of Europe and America watch as their governments send their money off to Africa where it will be looted to private pockets.

1.Africa will need to add around 250 GW of capacity by 2030 to meet demand growth.

2.Solar has by far the largest renewable resource potential in Africa, with high-quality solar resources available everywhere.

3.Nearly 600 million people in Africa lack access to electricity.

4.Electricity blackouts and reliance on ex­pensive diesel power generation costs some African economies between 1% and 5% of GDP annually.

5.Nigeria has Africa’s highest population at about 160 million, over 60% (96 million), of these have less than 12 hours of electricity per day.

6.Electricity blackouts and reliance on expensive diesel power generators costs the Nigerian economy over 30% of GDP annually. If Nigerians can get 1 extra hour of electricity per day, the GDP will increase by approximately 9%.

7.If all Nigerians alone can have access to constant electricity, the African power problem is approximately 20% solved.

8.Average per capita electricity consump­tion in sub-Saharan Africa (excluding South Africa): 153 kWh/year (one-fourth of the consumption in India and just 6% of the global average.)

According to IRENA estimates, ‘‘Africa is endowed with vast untapped renewable energy resources that can provide affordable electricity for all. Solar has by far the largest renewable resource potential in Africa, with high-quality solar resources available almost everywhere. Africa’s onshore wind resources (alone) are in the order of 1750 GW, far more than total African demand for the foreseeable future’’. Africa needs to add just around 250 GW of capacity (less than 17.5% of her onshore wind resources alone) by 2030 to meet demand growth. This suggests that power generation could increase to 50% in 2030 and to 73% in 2050 if the right policies are in place and implemented. It also means renewable energy could be the path for least-cost development, particularly for bringing electricity access to millions of Africans currently lacking access to the grid.Although hydropower has dominated renewable power investment across the continent, it only generates 10% to 20% of the total economically feasible potential. Solar has by far the largest renewable resource potential in Africa. The continent can benefit from the recent global progress and cost reductions in renewable power generation tech­nologies, to leapfrog the development path taken by industrialized countries and move directly to a renewable-based system.